Loyal. Beautiful. Professional. Impeccably organized. Potentially lethal. Sarah Stevens is a woman with many distinct qualities. First and foremost a butler par excellence, skilled at running large households smoothly and efficiently, she is also a trained bodyguard and expert marksman - indispensable to her elderly employer, a courtly gentleman Sarah has come to respect and love. But her perfectly ordered life is shattered when tragedy strikes.

Kiss Me While I Sleep

It's a job that makes a killing. Efficient, professional, and without apology, Lily Mansfield is a hired assassin, working as a contract agent for the CIA. Her targets are the powerful and corrupt, those who can't be touched by the law.

Kill and Tell

Still reeling from her mother's recent death, Karen Whitlaw is stunned when she receives a package containing a mysterious notebook from her estranged father, whom she has barely seen since his return from the Vietnam War decades ago. Then, a shocking phone call: Karen's father has been murdered on the gritty streets of New Orleans.

Up Close and Dangerous: A Novel

Bailey Wingate's scheming adult stepchildren are surprised when their father's will leaves Bailey in control of their fortune, and war ensues. A year later, while flying from Seattle to Denver in a small plane, Bailey nearly dies herself when the engine sputters - and then fails.

All the Queen's Men

No one can get close to John Medina, the CIA's legendary Black Ops specialist who works in the shadows of the government's deadliest missions. And no one knows the dangers better than Niema Burdock. A sharp, steely-nerved communications expert, Niema and her husband, Dallas, worked side by side with Medina on an explosive mission that went tragically wrong. Now Niema has withdrawn to a quiet Intelligence position, and a safe - if predictable - existence that has helped her heal her scars from five years ago. But now John Medina needs her....

To Die For

Blair Mallory lives the good life. She's pretty, confident, and the owner of a thriving upscale fitness center. But in the shadow of success, a troubled member of the club develops a strange fixation on her, imitating her style and dress. Matters take a darker turn when the look-alike is shot dead - and Blair witnesses the horror.

Dream Man

Marlie Keen was trying to lead a quiet, ordinary life. She thought the knowing - the clairvoyance that allowed her to witness crimes as they happened - had been destroyed in the nightmare of her past. Then one night it returned with a vengeance, and she desperately needed to find someone to make it stop.

After the Night

"Of all of my novels, After the Night remains one of my personal favorites – and Faith Devlin and Gray Rouillard are two of my favorite characters. Faith is strong, proud, and fearless, and Gray – well, he’s just downright sexy. Faith’s search for the truth about the devastating scandal surrounding her mother and Gray’s father blazes with intrigue. Add some sultry Southern hear, and you’ve got a real scorcher of a listen." (Linda Howard)

Now You See Her

A talented painter in her early thirties, Samille Sweeney has achieved enviable success. Her work sells at an exclusive New York City gallery and her popularity is at an all-time high when she begins to experience lush, vivid dreams drenched in vibrant hues that influence her artwork. When Sweeney paints a graphic murder scene that mirrors a recent real-life murder, she is thrust into suspicious light.

Open Season

Daisy Minor is bored. Worse than that, she's boring. A plain, small-town librarian, she's got a wardrobe as sexy as a dictionary and hasn't been on a date in years. She's never even had a lukewarm love affair, let alone a hot one. So when she wakes up on her 34th birthday and wonders how it is that she still lives with her widowed mom and spinster aunt while her friends have all gotten married and started families, she decides it's time to get a life - and a sex life.

Killing Time

In 1985, with much fanfare, a time capsule was buried under the front lawn of a small-town county courthouse, to be reopened in 2085. But just 20 years later, in the dead of night, the capsule is dug up, its contents stolen.

Against the Rules

When Cathryn Ashe was 17, she ran away to the anonymity of the city after a romantic encounter with Rule Jackson, the manager of her father's ranch. Now, eight years later, her father has passed away, leaving her the ranch, and Cathryn returns to claim what's hers...and to challenge Rule like never before.

Shades of Twilight

Shades of Twilight is the story of Roanna Davenport, who grows up in a wealthy southern family but never quite fits in. She isn't pretty or popular, and she has a real talent for saying the wrong thing at precisely the wrong moment. She's in love with a distant cousin, Webb Tallant. But Webb marries their cousin Jessie, the bane of Roanna's life. When Jessie is found murdered, Webb is blamed for her death, even though there isn't enough evidence to charge him.

Death Angel

After she double-crosses her lover, a ruthless crime lord, Drea must flee from a relentless assassin who ultimately succeeds in killing her. But after a very brief death, Drea returns to life a changed woman: no longer selfish and cruel, determined to bring down the ones who marked her for death. Joining forces with the FBI, little does she suspect that the man she will come to love is the same assassin who took her life.

Mr. Perfect

What would make the perfect man? That's the deliciously racy topic that Jaine Bright and her three girlfriends are pondering one night at their favorite after-hours hot spot: Mr. Perfect. Would he be tall, dark, and handsome? Caring and warmhearted - or will just muscular do? As their conversation heats up, they concoct a tongue-in-cheek checklist that becomes an overnight sensation, spreading like wildfire at work and sizzling along email lines. But what began as a joke among friends turns deadly serious when one of the four women is murdered....

Veil of Night: A Novel

Jaclyn Wilde is a wedding planner who loves her job—usually. But helping Carrie Edwards with her Big Day has been an unrelenting nightmare. Carrie is a bridezilla of mythic nastiness, a diva whose tantrums are just about as crazy as her demands. But the unpleasant task at hand turns seriously criminal when Carrie is brutally murdered and everyone involved with the ceremony is accusing one another of doing the deed.

Cry No More

With an astonishing blend of savvy, instinct, and passion, Milla Edge displays an uncanny gift for finding lost children. When all seems helpless, desperate souls from across the country come to her for hope and results. Traveling to a small village in Mexico on a reliable tip, Milla begins to uncover the dire fate of countless children who have disappeared over the years.

Cover of Night

In the charming rural town of Trail Stop, Idaho, accessible to the outside world by only a single road, young widow Cate Nightingale lives peacefully with her four-year-old twin boys, running a bed-and-breakfast. But one day, Cate is shocked when armed men storm the house, demanding the mystery man's belongings.

Prey: A Novel

Three years ago, Dare returned home to rural western Montana and opened a hunting business to rival Angie’s. Complicating matters is the fact that Dare has asked Angie out (not once but twice) and has given her a gift of butterflies in the process. Angie has no patience for butterflies. They only lead to foolish decisions. And now the infuriatingly handsome Iraq war vet has siphoned away Angie’s livelihood, forcing her to close up shop. Before Angie is to leave town, she organizes one last trip into the wilderness....

Burn

Money certainly changes Jenner Redwine's life when she wins a lottery jackpot. But it also costs her plenty: Her father rips her off and disappears, her fortune-hunting boyfriend soon becomes her ex, and friends-turned-freeloaders give her the cold shoulder when she stops paying for everything. Flush with new money, Jenner can't imagine ever finding a place in the world of the wealthy. Seven years later, though, she's rubbing elbows with the rich, despite the fact she still feels like a party crasher.

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Blair Mallory, last seen in To Die For, has already survived one murder attempt. Now, while planning her wedding and dealing with holiday-season madness, Blair once again dodges a bullet. Or, more precisely, a Buick. And though the driver's identity remains a mystery, his or her murderous intentions are all too clear.

The Touch of Fire

Rafe McCay has a bullet in his side and a bounty hunter on his tail. Since there are few doctors in the Arizona Territory, he takes what he can get. Pointing a gun at Dr. Annie Parker, he abducts her into the mountains so she can tend his wounds. In this dangerous wilderness world, Rafe wakens in Annie a woman's hungry desire, as Annie finds a man wounded in soul as well as body. Her healing touch brings him new hope, but the secrets of the past still pursue them.

Son of the Morning

A scholar specializing in ancient manuscripts, Grace St. John never imagined that a cache of old documents she discovered was the missing link to a lost Celtic treasure. But as soon as she deciphers the legend of the Knights of the Templar - long fabled to hold the key to unlimited power - Grace becomes the target of a ruthless killer bent on abusing the coveted force. Determined to stop him, Grace needs the help of a warrior bound by duty to uphold the Templar's secret for all eternity.

Overload

Blackout! The entire Southeast was without power...but there was still more than enough electricity between Elizabeth Major and Tom Quinlan! They were stranded together in a Dallas high rise for the duration...and setting off enough sparks to light up the darkest night.

Angel Creek

For five years after her father died, lithe, beautiful Dee Swann held on to Angel Creek valley and her independence. The homestead was hers, and she vowed no one else would ever own it...or her. Then Lucas Cochran came back to Colorado. In the drought-cursed high country, he needed Angel Creek and its cool water to turn his Double C ranch into the cattle dynasty he craved. His ruthless ambition guaranteed he would fight to take it away from the black-haired, green-eyed spitfire who claimed it.

Publisher's Summary

Loyal. Beautiful. Professional. Impeccably organized. Potentially lethal. Sarah Stevens is a woman with many distinct qualities. First and foremost a butler par excellence, skilled at running large households smoothly and efficiently, she is also a trained bodyguard and expert marksman - indispensable to her elderly employer, a courtly gentleman Sarah has come to respect and love.

Then, one night she thwarts a burglary in progress, a courageous act that awards Sarah her requisite "15 minutes of fame" with the local press. But the exposure is enough to catch the attention of a tortured soul who, unbeknownst to Sarah, will stop at nothing to have her for himself.

Sarah's perfectly ordered life is shattered when tragedy strikes: her beloved employer is brutally murdered. The detective investigating the case assures Sarah that she is not a suspect - until lightning strikes twice. There's a second killing - and this time, despite a lack of evidence connecting her to the crime, Sarah cannot escape the shadow of guilt.

The only option left for Sarah is to carry on with her life. But she doesn't realize that a deranged stalker is luring her into an elaborate trap...one in which she, once ensnared, might never escape. For Sarah soon finds herself at the mercy of a man who will tend to her every whim, smother her with affection, and crush her in his all-consuming embrace.

One of Linda Howard's weakest books. Narrator Susan Ericksen is very good, but the story turned me off. Detective Cahill really let me down. Some hero. Simply not enough trust, dialogue, or relationship development. I didn't laugh or even smile. Too much raunchy sex. Repeated mention of blood and splattered brain matter. Lest we forget?

But my biggest problem?? I could NOT believe Sarah had sex with Cahill after his big betrayal. What a crock! He needed to work hard to win her trust again. But nope. She's easy.

The epilogue was a waste. Mostly, it was Cahill mentally rehashing the case, just as if we didn't already know -- all along -- what Dunsmuir did, and what a psycho he was. Then, after Dumbo Detective mentally replays the entire case, the book ends with more sexy bondage and a declaration of love. I couldn't buy it.

Howard's writing is weak in this book. Repetitive, plus she focused on trivial details too much. Dump redundancy and trivia. Replace with dialogue and action.

I am a audiobook addict, have just finished listening to Dying To Please and had to write a review straight away. I couldn't stop listening to it, fabulous story, suspense, humor, great characters, raunchy sex and many congratulations to Susan Ericksen for the narration, spot on! She brings this book to life without fault. A MUST LISTEN!

I would give this book a perfect 10 if I could.
Story = Excellent
Narrator = Excellent
Suspense, twists and turns, creepy characters and a top notch love story. I will listen to this one over again. Susan Ericksen is now my most favorite narrator!!

I purchased this book for my wife and me to listen to on a vacation drive. We were both very disappointed with this book. We were expecting more of a murder mystery, but this book seemed to focus more on an unrealistic "everything woman" (beautiful butler/bodyguard, excellent marksman, martial arts specialist; who does housework, buys groceries, and manages a household), and her lust for pleasure with an unrealistic "everything man" (ex-military doctor, who is now a policeman/investigator with a small town police force). At some point, we asked the question, "Hey, did these people forget there was a murder that happened?" Judging from the reviews (I have seen only one other negative review), this book obviously has a lot of appeal to a certain segment of readers. At the risk of coming across as sexist, I will say that my guess is that this book would be more liked by female readers who possibly lack sexual passion in their lives; or by male readers who dream of having a Victoria's Secret model who does his housework in lingerie, goes to the gun range or fishing with him, and allows him to handcuff her and have his way with her whenever he wants.

What could Linda Howard have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Focus on and develop the murder mystery story-line more... Be less juvenile sounding in the love (lust) scenes. This book sounded like it was written by a freshman in college!

Have you listened to any of Susan Ericksen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't recall hearing any other Susan Ericksen narrations. With this book, she did a good job, albeit with bad material.

I've listed to several audiobooks and this one is on the top of the list of my favorites! After listening to High Noon by Nora Raberts I did a search of the other books narrated by Susan Eriksen and found this book. The narrator can either make an audiobook as wonderful as this one is or can completley ruin the story and in this case the story is enhanced by the excellent job of the narrator.

I'm a huge Linda Howard fan and this book did not disappoint. The heroine was strong and sympathetic, the hero was charming and only modestly flawed, the villainous climax was tense, and the sexual heat was set on high.

What made the experience of listening to Dying to Please the most enjoyable?

*Sarah Stevens is a butler, an unusual position for a woman and her bodyguard skills are equally matched. She is working for a kindly, old judge. They have an amicable relationship to the point of being friends for one another. One night she goes out for a movie and comes home to find him murdered. During the questioning/investigating phase she meets Thompson Cahill. As they try to discover the motives that led to the judges murder, a mystery gift appears for her. What does it mean? Who could've killed this kindly man?

Things follow and take an unusual course. There are more mysteries to solve and feelings to discover. I'm afraid anymore that I give will spoil so I will leave it as; there is a lot of action even more 'romantic' action, investigating and mystery to clear up.

The narrator/performance performer did an excellent job in portraying each character. I really enjoyed her style and professionalism.

I love Linda Howard and never know what to expect from her.

Notes: Mature language, sex and violence

Credit worthy/$space: As with most of my books I got this on a two for one credit sale. However, it is definitely creditworthy and/or paying the membership price.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope it was helpful to you and if so please select yes at the bottom of this line.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.